Imagine the results of a survey of whether people believed humans would be on Mars in twenty years. The question simply being will we be there, not whether it’s a good idea or is worth the tremendous time and effort.  I believe the average person would very likely say yes, we will be there.

Proving my ability, hah, hah, to manipulate the news, within a couple of weeks of writing the above, the following two stories appeared.

The Denver Post, March 9, 2016:  Guest Commentary from Representative Lamar Smith, Republican from Texas, and Ed Perlmutter, Democrat, Colorado. They wrote that in 2033 Mars and Earth will be aligned so that a round trip could be done in a year and a half compared to two or three years in other alignments.

They suggested, “We need a detailed plan to put an end to the uncertainties that could delay a mission to Mars.”  And, then, small miracle at a time when the two political parties seem to delight in opposing each other just to be oppositional, they sum up with, “We can do this.”

The very next day, March 10, the Denver Post under the headline, “A second chance for spacecraft, NASA revives mission to Mars for InSight, built in Jeffco by Lockheed Martin.” Jeffco is Jefferson County Colorado, where I live. Lockheed Martin has been making rockets and rocket-launched things here for decades.

Apparently an equipment failure led to postponement of the InSight mission, and opened up doubt that it would ever go. Now NASA is planning to repair the equipment issue and aim for a May, 2018 launch, the next window of opportunity.

This article concluded: “The red planet is already teeming with active spacecraft, including NASA’s Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on the surface and Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Maven orbiter from high above.  Europe has it Express spacecraft in orbit.”

And NASA met their goal of reviving InSight within two years. The Denver Post, Sunday May 6, 2018 16A:  “A robotic geologist armed with a  hammer and quake monitor rocketed towards Mars on Saturday, aiming to land on the red planet an explore its mysterious insides.

We can indeed do this.